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Education leaders from the EI Africa Regional Committee (EIARC) came together to celebrate hard-won progress, tackle persistent challenges, and renew their collective resolve to champion public education. With a clear focus on urging governments to prioritize and fully fund public education, participants reaffirmed their commitment to securing quality learning for every child and upholding the rights and dignity of educators throughout Africa.

Pressing African governments to adequately fund public education and value the teaching profession

In her opening remarks during the meeting convened virtually on November 18th–19th, EIARC Chairperson, Mariama Chipkaou, noted that “this year has been rich with events related to education on the continent.”

She welcomed the new continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA) for the decade 2026–2035 adopted at the 38th Summit of Heads of States of the African Union (AU) reporting that just a few weeks after its adoption, EI Africa (EIA) organized an online forum on CESA 26-35 to sensitize members on that new education framework. “We urge African governments to ensure full implementation of the new strategy. This must include setting up mechanisms of social and policy dialogue with teachers and their unions throughout the whole process of implementation of CESA 26-35.”

She also reminded the regional leaders that EI actively participated in the Pan African Conference on Teacher Education (PACTED) organized by the AU from October 1st-3rd, 2025, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with 52 participants representing EI member organizations in that event. The Conference recognized the urgent need for African governments to adequately finance education and invest in and recognize teachers. It also celebrated World Teachers’ Day in Africa, for the first time in history.

Alongside PACTED, EIA convened a regional learning event on the Go Public! Fund Education campaign that allowed EI member organizations to learn from each other and develop strategies to press African governments to address teacher shortages through adequate investment in education and the elevation of the status of the teaching profession.

She went on to stress that “it is our mandate to stand in solidarity with colleagues, teachers and unionists whose lives and freedom are threatened. It is our mandate to continue pressing our governments to adequately fund public education and value the teaching profession so that the African continent can enjoy peaceful development and a more just society.”

Need to convert declarations into reality

EI President, Mugwena Maluleke, also highlighted that “your presence today is a statement: when education and teachers are threatened, we will show up, we will step up.”

He also agreed that “this year marked a turning point,” adding that, “at the launch of the AU Decade of Accelerated Action for the Transformation of Education and at PACTED 2025, EI member organizations did not stand at the margins, we shaped the agenda. Foundational learning, teacher professionalism, and digital innovation: These are pillars that carry our fingerprints. The decade ahead is not a paper to be politely shelved; It is a continental commitment that demands real resources and rigorous accountability.”

The EI leader added that international instruments from the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation to the UN High-Level Panel Recommendations and the Santiago Consensus “give us moral and legal leverage. Governments have endorsed high standards. Now the question is simple, will they fund them? Too often promises stop at speeches and committees. We refuse to let commitments exist only as words.”

He went on calling EI member organizations on the African continent to commit to the Go Public! Fund Education strategy. “We need a recommitment from this meeting that our member organizations will continue to campaign, continue to fight, and then approve the resolutions of CESA implementation and solidarity with union leaders under attack.

Let's return to your countries with clear time bound action plans and continental commitment.”

He concluded: “The work is demanding, but the path is very clear. We have the roadmap, the legal standards, the campaign model, and the history of victories. Now we convert declarations into reality. Invest in teachers. Fund public education. Defend peace and rights. Lead the transformation.”

Teachers are builders of the future, wisdom workers

EI General Secretary, David Edwards, also presented on recent global developments related to education, teachers and education support personnel, underlining: “We are not spectators, we are architects, we are builders of the future, we are wisdom workers.”

Tackling the EI Go Public! Fund Education campaign, he reiterated that “there is no substitute for teachers and there are no quick fixes for the global teacher shortage. Governments must go public and fund education.”

He further reminded that Africa is the region most affected by the teacher shortage. Out of the 50 million teachers missing worldwide, 15 million are needed in Sub-Saharan Africa alone. “But this is also why Africa is the region of the world where our campaign is most active and most widely implemented. EI member organizations across Africa are being supported by EI to develop their national campaigns and engage their governments on education, financing and investment in teachers. We have to keep going and to expand the campaign at all levels from the local to the global.”

Mentioning the Santiago Consensus, which “demonstrates the power of organized teachers speaking with one voice,” M. Edwards said that this Consensus enshrines a principle EI has fought to establish: recognizing the teacher-student relationship as part of humanity's common heritage. “This is more than symbolic recognition—it's a commitment to preserving human connection in education against the encroachment of purely technological approaches. Education is NOT content delivery.”

M. Edwards also underlined that another essential development to be aware of is the upcoming revision of the 1966 and 1997 Recommendations concerning the status of teaching personnel. “The revision will be an essential opportunity for us to strengthen the recommendations and ensure that they reflect the reality of teaching in the 21st century.”

Reminding that on October 10th, World Mental Health Day, EI launched its new Health and Well-being Network and a resource center in partnership with the French MGEN, he explained that “the new Network on Health and Well-being replaces the Education and Solidarity Network. It will also connect EI member organizations and partners around the world to enable them to share experiences and strategies to promote the well-being of teachers and education support personnel. Teacher well-being and students’ wellbeing are linked.”

Insisting on the “longstanding commitment for EI” that is the fight against child labor, he stressed that “this is outstanding work and you should all be immensely proud. Across 6 countries in Africa, education union programs against child labor are delivering life-changing results. In 2024 alone, over 1,880 former child laborers have been returned to classrooms in project areas in Burundi, Malawi, Mali, Togo, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Every one of those students count, every one of them was welcomed back to school.”

While COP30 is happening in Amazonia, Brazil, he said: “I am proud that our profession understands the threat of climate change and has mobilized for quality climate change education for all and a just transition to a green economy.”

The EI General Secretary concluded: “Your concerns resonate with colleagues around the world. Your fight inspires teachers in other countries to rise, to oppose injustice, and to build a better future for all. In this fight for our profession, for its soul and dignity, we stand together. Education International is fully committed to supporting you, just as you have always supported EI and teachers everywhere.”

Gains made despite challenging context

For EIA Director, Dr. Dennis Sinyolo, the EIA vision is for it to be “an effective, vibrant, and responsive EI Region united for inclusive quality public education and educators’ rights,” with a mission “to unite and mobilize teachers and education support personnel in Africa to defend and promote professional and education rights.”

Given the context in which EIA affiliates operate, he reported that, on the continent, governments are not investing sufficiently in education. On average, they are investing 3.8% of GDP or 14.5% of the national budget instead of 6% of GDP and 20% of the national budget respectively.

However, Dr. Sinyolo assured that “there is good news,” and that “we have achieved a lot despite these challenges.”

Coming back on EI African affiliates’ contribution to the PACTED, he said: “I am very proud that our relationship with the African Union has improved tremendously from the time they were afraid of unions, that they did not even want to involve us anyway because they thought would be disruptive. We will continue to nest that relationship. Of course, we need to do more, particularly in establishing a similar kind of institutionalized relationship with regional economic communities.”

“Our evidence was very clear, and that evidence helped us to influence the African Union. That propositional approach helped even when they did the first draft of the new strategy. We brought it back to our members who commented on it in a workshop that involved also young members. And we took the feedback back to the African Union.” This demonstrates that “when we engage in dialogue with intergovernmental organizations in a consistent manner, when we campaign, when we engage in advocacy using evidence, then they listen to us,” he said.

Also highlighting the need to promote the UN recommendations on the teaching profession, he gave the positive example of progress made by the EI Go Public! Fund Education campaign in Zimbabwe, where the union, ZIMTA was able to mobilize Members of Parliament in the Parliament itself a week before they were going to debate the national budget. When the MPs met the following week with the Minister of Finance to input into the national budget, they demanded more investment in education. “And the result was a jump in the allocation from about 14% of the national budget to over 20%. That is phenomenal!”

Dr. Sinyolo further said that EIA lobbied governments to adopt and implement the Safe Schools Declaration an important intergovernmental tool. He informed about the upcoming global meeting focusing on this important Declaration to be held in Nairobi, Kenya.

The EIA office also launched a study on the impact of conflict and attacks on teachers, he reported, encouraging Committee members to respond to the survey.

“EI Global is on the move and EI Africa as part of the global is on the move. We should be proud of the achievements made by our global organization in Africa. We have made great strides in contributing to that success story.

He also welcomed the fact that, while “our member organizations continue to provide services as a way of recruitment, they are shifting towards organizing. We have seen a creation of structures for young members in several countries, an amendment of union constitutions to accommodate more women and young members.”

Fifth EI World Women’s Conference

EI Deputy General Secretary Haldis Holst further briefed the Committee about the upcoming 5th EI World Women’s Conference (WWC) to take place in Bahia, Brazil, from September 15th- 17th, 2026.

She started by commending EI African affiliates for achievements made in the region with regards to gender equality and encouraging to increase the number of 11 countries that have already ratified the International Labour Organization’s Convention on Violence and Harassment (C190).

She also reminded that the online conference in 2022 was very important with 1358 participants, reaching a higher number of participants than when the WWC meets in person.

She explained that “we titled the online conference Using Women's Power for Change, a festival of ideas, experiences and strategies to achieve gender equality in and through education unions. We must constantly change, all of us, and we must use the capacities of all of us, not just half of us. We also need women’s power for change.”

She also noted that the previous in person World Women's Conference was held in the African region, in Marrakech, Morocco, in 2018.

She went on encouraging member organizations to send young women trade unionists to the 5th WWC, acknowledging that WWCs are EI’s global conferences with the most participants participating in an EI conference for the first time. “It is an amazing recruitment area for people to get to know EI and get the taste of perhaps something they want to continue with. This means that we want to open the doors, make sure that we have people that may not know EI so well before to come and take part and hopefully be motivated to continue within EI.”

She also informed that the EI Status of Women's Committee will have a discussion on the 5th WWC’s theme in December, “finding out what are the common points being proposed by the different regional women networks, and how this can be put into an overarching theme that has focus and at the same time is broad enough to have interest for all EI member organizations.”

Policy Brief on Artificial Intelligence and Education in Africa

During the meeting’s second day, the education union leaders approved a Policy Brief on Artificial Intelligence and Education in Africa.

Introducing the document, EI’s Dr. Pedi Anawi strongly emphasized that “education is primarily relational, not transactional.”

He went on to note that “EI believes that new technologies like AI provide exciting possibilities to enhance the quality of education. However, the policy stresses that these new technologies must not replace the teacher nor in-person in-class instruction.”

“We need to be careful, because this technology can worsen existing inequalities in various areas - including labor markets, education, and access to services. We must ensure that AI initiatives are inclusive and adhere to ethical standards,” he concluded.

These promises, challenges and dangers related to the use of AI in education will be debated further at the EI Global Conference on AI on December 4th-5th, 2025.

EIARC Resolutions

Two significant resolutions were also adopted by EIARC.

The first one, presented by EI Africa Vice-President Richard Gundane, calls for the full implementation of the new Continental Education Strategy for Africa by the African Union and African governments.

It draws on “the acknowledgement expressed in CESA 26-35 that investing in education is one of the best investments countries can make, and that education contributes to the ability of individuals to exercise other human rights.”

It also stresses the need to make the teaching profession attractive by guaranteeing labor rights and ensuring good working conditions, including manageable workloads and competitive salaries for teachers and education workers; valuing them, respecting them, ensuring they are central to decision-making, and trusting their pedagogical expertise as stated in the second Strategic Area of CESA 2026-2035.

Through this document, EIARC calls on:

• The African Union to ensure the effective implementation of CESA 26-35, especially Strategic Area 2 pertaining to the recruitment and professional development of teachers, and education support personnel, as well as their well-being;
• The African Union to strengthen CESA Clusters and other implementation mechanisms while ensuring active participation of education unions;
• AU member states to develop national CESA implementations frameworks involving education unions throughout the whole process with a view to ensuring full achievement of the CESA strategic objectives;
• EI Member organizations to unite, mobilize and advocate for the full implementation of CESA 26 –35 objectives by their governments; and
• EI member organizations to monitor and report on progress towards achievement of SDG 4 and the objectives of CESA 26-35.

The second resolution adopted, reaffirming solidarity with union leaders and members under attack in Africa, recognizes “the vital role of education unions in defending the rights of educators, promoting quality education, and advancing social justice across Africa.”

Presented by Hélène Nekarmbaye, member of the global EI Executive Board for Africa, it unequivocally condemns “all forms of violence, intimidation, harassment, and attacks against union leaders and members in Africa,” it also reaffirms “unwavering solidarity with all union leaders and members facing threats or attacks as a result of their legitimate trade union activities, including strike action.”

It goes on calling on all African governments “to respect, protect, and fulfil the rights of education unions and their members, including the right to organize, bargain collectively, and participate in industrial action without fear of reprisal.”

It also encourages international and regional bodies, including the AU, to take concrete action to protect union rights and to hold governments accountable for violations.

This EIARC meeting clearly demonstrated the unwavering commitment of education union leaders across the continent. Their collective voice has not only shaped the agenda for the future of African education but also demanded that governments move beyond promises to real, measurable action.